


What Happens on the Couch

by DroppedAllTheseOreos



Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-12 03:32:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17459825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DroppedAllTheseOreos/pseuds/DroppedAllTheseOreos
Summary: Since the DoReMiFa Beat cabinet has been permanently converted into a jail for Kuroto, the couch has become a popular accommodation for the other Bugster residents to rest on.





	What Happens on the Couch

**Author's Note:**

> I've been feeling a bit of a creative block with my long-term fics so this is just a little idea I wanted to put out there to get back into the groove of writing. Might put out a few more of these just to get small ideas out of my head so I can devote more brain power to my in-progress stuff.

Ever since he’d been resurrected from the mess of data across Chronicle and Drago Knight Hunter Z, Graphite sparred with Nico. They didn’t necessarily want to hang out with each other, but Ex-Ai-- _Emu_  (Parado was very insistent on his host’s name) and Poppy urged them to at least find something to do together since there was a lot of unsolved hostility between them, so they agreed on fighting each other until they collapsed. While it wasn’t necessarily what their friends had in mind, Emu figured it was a good outlet, especially since Nico wasn’t over the whole, almost killing Snipe thing so helping her work through those feelings would be healthy. Plus, Poppy did want him to make friends, and he wasn’t going to argue with her, he couldn’t deal with a sad Poppy. On top of that, he saw how easily she could take people down when she wouldn’t take no for an answer, so he was obligated to go with this idea. Brave’s father and Snipe expressed concern to the rest of CR, but everyone just shrugged with a “not our concern” or “what could go wrong?”

And surprisingly, nothing went wrong. There palpable tension between them at first, which was expected, but they actually started speaking a few weeks into this routine. It was more of her talking at him, or insulting his fighting style to get him riled up. It worked until Parado pointed out it was just gamer trash talk. But her extensive knowledge about the Drago Knight franchise gave them a lot to talk about when they finally decided to try communicate like regular people. The only actual downside to this arrangement was that she had seemingly infinite amounts of energy. Graphite thought himself some unstoppable warrior, an unyielding force of nature, but how wrong he was. That title could only go to Nico.

She could almost fight him to a standstill with just her Level 1 Chronicle suit and the Jet Combat gashat she pilfered from Snipe. "It's not like he's using it anyways." She shrugged when he asked about it. Of course, she had to use the power-ups to even the playing field, and her ability to use them allowed her to fight Graphite on equal footing with him at Level 99, which was admirable. But the moment her sticky fingers got attached to Poppy's bugvisor and Snipe’s Chronicle gashat-- again, not like they're using them-- Graphite was legitimately fighting for his life every time she henshined.

Today, they were both exhausted since Nico had a shareholders meeting at Genm that morning and Graphite let Poppy and Parado drag him around the city until dawn the night before, so they called it quits early. Nico punched him on the shoulder with a half smile, and they both went their separate ways. When he teleported in to CR, he sighed relievedly that it was unoccupied. Even if there were some people hanging around, he couldn't care less since the couch was open.

Just before he could lay down, a cluster of orange pixels flew onto it, condensing into Lazer.

Graphite closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to stay calm.  When he opened them again, he couldn't help but glare at Lazer who just smiled coyly back up at him. He patted his chest.

“You can rest here if you want.”

Graphite immediately ripped the cushion out from under Lazer’s head and forced it down onto his face.

“Why don’t we see if you have 99 lives like Genm?”

Lazer slapped at his arm, squirming to get out. Graphite just smothered him harder. Lazer managed to push back enough to turn his head to the side and scream out.

“Ah! Choke me harder, baby!”

His voice was too panicked for it to sound even remotely aroused, but Graphite jolted back anyways, the cushion flying out of his hands and flopping under the table. A strangled cackle from the door had both of them turning to see Parado standing there awkwardly.

“Well… I’ll leave you guys to it.” He smirked.

Before Graphite could even protest, Parado backed out of the room, a huge grin on his face and his laughter echoing down the hall as he ran. He turned back to Lazer who was vaulting over the arm of the couch and dashing over to the staircase. Seething, Graphite ran after him and managed to knock him into the railing. Lazer flipped over it and disappeared in a burst of pixels before Graphite could do anything else. He jumped over the railing, ready to continue the chase but his body was begging for a recharge so he just fizzled and sparked a little bit instead of teleporting.

With a huff, he walked back over to the couch, throwing the cushion and himself onto it, staring up at the ceiling and waiting for sleep to take him. There was a small part of him, probably the Saki part, that thought about how nice it would be to cuddle someone until he fell asleep. Growling, he shoved the sentiment aside and pulled his jacket over his head, trying to block out the lights and any other intrusive thoughts threatening to keep him awake.


End file.
